Bad News for model kits

[PUFF88]

www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/2005230.asp


all of the sudden makers of the vehicles in real life are asking for $30-40 in royalties per kit . and thats double what the average kit sells for. its closing up many companies according to this. My buddy sent me the link, and it disgusts me to no end that they would do this. i dont think they should have to pay a royalty but if the law wants it, then i think a dollar is would be fair. but this is nuts if its true.

[Phil Walker]

In ONE word, "OUCH!"

Seriously though, the stinking government IS attacking ALL freedoms and anything any of us enjoy. Wish I knew WHO cooked this one up to make voices heard!!!


Sincerely,
Phil

[Keith Heitmann]

I stopped buying model kits a long time ago. I thought $20 was too much for most of them.

[PUFF88]

for some$20 i think is reasonable for the quality of them, but i try to buy in the$3-$15 dollar range or so

[Keith Heitmann]

$20 for the topend models is fine but I can't seem paying that for many of the lesser scale and lesser quality models. It's been long time since I have bought one or put one together. I've got kits in my basement that I bought back in the 70s that I haven't built yet or started and didn't complete yet.

[Galland]

Defense industry corporations usually get large tax concessions from states and localities to build their factories there, and this is how they pay us back. Meanwhile our tax dollars are used to pay for their products. Real nice! Maybe a senator or two should introduce a bill making free unassembled model licensing a condition of receiving a military contract. That would cool their greedy jets!

I stopped buying plastic model kits when the stuff I wanted to buy hit the $12.00 mark. At the age of thirteen, my idea of big money was eight dollars and maybe four or five more bucks for paint. I was never good at building models. Testor's modeling glue melted the plastic if I applied too much, and the parts often fell off if I didn't apply enough. The little bottles of paint inevitably dried up by the time I bought another kit. Not having a mentor of any sort didn't help matters. I enjoyed slapping kits together, but the results were hideous.

Reading about military craft and drawing them yielded more satisfying results.

Galland

[Keith Heitmann]

Building models was fun, I just don't have the time for it anymore and I don't want to pay what their asking for them.

I used to build kits quite regularly as a kid. No one helped me so it was all trial and error, from finger prints in the paint to glue on the clear parts.